"Well, that was interesting." Axl said diplomatically, and Jennie winced mentally.

They were walking away from the church. It hadn't been a very interesting experience. The sermon had been about the duties people had to bring children into the world responsibly, which was an important issue but immaterial to a pair of Reploids.

"The choir was very nice." Jennie tried to make the best of it. "Even if the sermon wasn't good for us. I don't think we'll be making any babies!" She grinned and poked him, making Axl blush, then smile. Jennie blushed too as she thought of the implication of what she had said… that they would someday be doing what it took to make babies.

But that was a very attractive thought, actually. Jennie snuggled up close to him, and slid an arm through his, gripping Axl's hand. He blushed again as she smiled at him winsomely.

"You know, I heard there's a nice club nearby that plays salsa music and has some wonderful dancing… do you know how to dance?" She could hear the yearning in her own voice. It had been far too long since she'd had a good dance… there was always someone in the practice rooms even in the dead of night, and their room was just insanely small.

"Oh yes. It's been a while, but I still remember how." Axl looked thoughtful. "But we need to get back by noon… do we have time?" That was when exercises started on Sundays. Jennie considered the time, then shook her head.

"No, I suppose not. Well… how about on Thursday? Do you think you can get that off?" She asked hopefully. That was the free day for the rookies this week, but Axl was on an entirely different schedule.

"I'll try my best." He promised, squeezing her hand. They walked back to the base slowly, hand in hand.

Just enjoying being close.

Later…

Jennie dragged herself back into her room, and promptly collapsed into her recharger. She was truly, truly exhausted.

She had worked hard at practice, then gone down to have her new buster and other enhancements installed. The technicians had gone over her with a fine-toothed comb, scanning her repeatedly in an effort to learn all they could about David's design. Just thinking about it made her giggle wearily.

Her brother had come up with some additive to her alloy that defeated most scans. Hooking her up for medical diagnosis still worked, but not the kind of full body scans that could be used for replication. That had caused a great deal of consternation among the techs and some speculation on her brother's motives. She imagined he would be receiving a few letters from Maverick HQ soon.

And knowing David, he'll give them my technical specs. Outside of what he had done with her mind, the rest of her design wasn't really secret. No doubt he'd already gotten the patents.

But with no way to scan her, they had asked her to undergo a far more extreme version of the first physical she had done to enter the Hunters. Tests of speed, strength, endurance… all performed after a hard bout of training. So tired…

It was still a bit early to recharge, though. Glancing around slowly, her gaze lighted on the tub of brownies sitting on the card table, and Jennie smiled faintly. There was only three left. She estimated that every rookie and a good number of hunters had stopped by for them… or gotten some from a Tupperware container Axl had taken to his unit.

Just before she dropped off to sleep, Jennie had one last groggy thought.

I wonder if brownies will get me in the 17'th?